State of Region report lays out Ventura County's data, warts and all

Troy Baker, 19, of Moorpark, approaches the shore after surfing at Ventura Beach on Friday. Ventura County has the cleanest ocean water in Southern California, according to a wide-ranging report on the State of the Region report released Wednesday by the Ventura County Civic Alliance.

Ventura County Star

A warts-and-all collection of numbers on Ventura County – touching on topics such as beaches, commute times, crop acreage and even math scores – will, its creators hope, become a new coffee-table tome.

It meets the pretty quotient.

The State of the Region report released Wednesday by the Ventura County Civic Alliance features 104 colorful pages of graphs, charts, photos and easy-to-read breakdowns of data in glossy-page book form.

The alliance believes the report, its first since 2007, can help frame discussions among local leaders about how to improve the community.

"You'll find answers to questions you may not even know that you had," said alliance chair Kay Faulconer Boger during opening remarks at a breakfast unveiling at California Lutheran University on Wednesday morning. Nearly 100 people attended.

Report author Tony Biasotti presented highlights from the 12 chapters, with lasting impacts of the recession providing a recurring theme.

"Everything in this book either directly charts that decline, or it charts something that occurred against the backdrop of that decline," he said of the huge drop in living standards resulting from the economic downturn that started in late 2007.

Some highlights:

The "gross county product," which measures the value of goods and services sold countywide each year, took a major dive in 2008, when it sank 7.2 percent.

"That's really bad," Biasotti said, adding the drop was worse than most economists thought at the time. "We have not had much of a recovery since then."

More than 30,000 county residents spend an hour or more getting to work each day. People are willing to commute longer distances when jobs are scarce, Biasotti said, while noting traffic was actually worse five years ago when the unemployment rate was lower.

Pass rates on high school Early Assessment Program math tests were fairly low countywide in 2012, with only one district — Oak Park Unified School District — scoring above 30 percent. Oxnard Union High School District, the county's largest, scored below 10 percent, with the countywide average below 20 percent. The numbers matter, Biasotti said, because local biotech companies complain they can't find workers with appropriate math and science training.

Catholicism is by far the dominant religion among locals who identify with particular churches, ranking at nearly 64 percent of those adherents. But the largest group, some 55 percent of the county's population, aren't affiliated with any particular church or are nonbelievers.

A host of other topics, from jobs and nonprofit participation to improvements in ocean and air quality, rounded out the session. While numerous reports come out covering individual topics, the VCCA book is special because it pulls together such a wide range of data, participants said.

Figures in the report were compiled by a team of researchers led by CLU economics professor Jamshid Damooei, who was part of a panel discussion at Wednesday's breakfast.

The alliance, an arm of the Ventura County Community Foundation that is focused on promoting a sustainable future for Ventura County, has about 100-200 members, said David Maron, who chaired the report committee. The report cost about $60,000, including research, design and writing, and was funded by a variety of local sponsors. About 5,000 copies have been printed.

A second release event, which will include wine and appetizers, runs from 3-5:15 p.m. Thursday at the VCCF Nonprofit Center, 4001 Mission Oaks Blvd. in Camarillo. Tickets are $25 and will be available at the door. For more information, call 988-0196.